Danger Signs in the Far East The new murder of
Japanese subjects in the Hongkew district of Shanghai, following on the incidents at Fengtai and Pakhoi, must aggravate Sino-Japanese tension gravely. At Fengtai honour has been satisfied • by the complete withdrawal of Chinese troops from the town and the substitution of a Japanese garrison. At Pakhoi the situation was complicated by the fact that .the town was occupied by a Kwangsi army, which for several days refused, in defiance of orders from Nanking, to retire and make way for a Japanese Investigating Commission. The town has now been evacuated, and Japanese Commissioners have landed with a detachment of marines under the guns of a Japanese fleet. Similar action' has been taken at Hongkew, although the district forms part of the International Settlement. The whole position in the Far East is now a vicious circle. Anti- Japanese feeling is so strong in every corner of China that outrages are bound to occur. Japan must react strongly if she is not to lose face ; and in doing so, she is drawn more and more deeply into a morass from which she can no longer extricate herself even if she would. Meanwhile China is being slowly but surely goaded into open resistance, even though she knows that resistance is hopeless. Events seem to be moving irresistibly towards catastrophe, though it would take a bold prophet to predict where and when the break will come.
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